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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27128155">Play the game.</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yui_Miyamoto/pseuds/Yui_Miyamoto'>Yui_Miyamoto</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997), Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Cross-Posted on LiveJournal, F/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 19:15:20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,308</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27128155</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yui_Miyamoto/pseuds/Yui_Miyamoto</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>As Tseng finally hands over Aerith, a past memory converges with a current one…</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Aerith Gainsborough/Tseng</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Play the game.</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><b>Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII Remake, and novels are the property of Square Enix.<br/>
<br/>
</b><br/>
<em>"Let. Her. Go.” </em><br/>
The low drawl of his voice caught with an edge of a bite digging deeper at his prey. He pointed his gun at the man’s forehead, slick and poised like the perfectly unwrinkled suit he wore.<br/>
<br/>
“I bet the President would give a pretty penny for this one,” the disgruntled researcher replied derisively, a mocking smirk to go along with it. The vice grip on the child’s arm became steel. The other hand pushed a gun into her temple making the young girl wince even though she uttered no words of pain to entice his perversities.<br/>
<br/>
Sensing peripherally around the rectangular perimeter, the twenty-year old kept his eyes on the marked target.<br/>
<br/>
<em>From the marking on the lab coat, he’s one of the people inputting data for Dr. Hojo’s group, but not in direct contact with him. However, how was he able to gain access to secret company files? As uncouth as Hojo was with his own experiments, even he left this one alone. At least for now.</em><br/>
<br/>
“There’s a lot of myths about the Ancients, don’t you know, Turk?”<br/>
<br/>
<em>Who fed him such lies? That girl has cried in front of me in anger before to tell me she wasn’t like her mother. Unlike what the president believes, she knows no more about the Promised Land than any one of us.<br/>
After all this time, I know that more than anyone.</em><br/>
<br/>
“Do their tears drop small orbs of materia? Do their skin, if we graft it to our own, give us eternal youth?” The man chuckled slow and devilishly. “And if we take a sample of their blood, do they give us eternal life?”<br/>
<br/>
<em>Ah, that’s his goal. </em><br/>
<br/>
And that’s when he saw the dark bruises peeking from the forearms covered by cuffs. He thought it was odd how this man wore thick clothing in the middle of summer, humidity making the fabric cling and the breath of air unbearable.<br/>
<br/>
<em>He tried to shoot the mako into his blood, but it rebelled.</em><br/>
<br/>
“C’mon, let’s make a de-“<br/>
PWOCK!<br/>
“SHIT! Arrrhh…” The researcher fell down, clutching onto his shoulder and breathing heavily. Dropping the weapon, the thirteen-year-old girl ran over.<br/>
<br/>
“Aerith!” Tseng called out as he held out his hand to her.<br/>
But when she caught his hand, he pulled her so that he could cover her eyes with his gloved left hand, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. She was quivering.<br/>
While positioning the trigger, he instructed her, “Block your ears.”<br/>
Aerith pushed her palms as much as she could into them.<br/>
<br/>
“I needed her blood for my daughter…” Vainly reaching out for his gun, the researcher knelt down with the blood dyeing his white labcoat, spreading dark red like syrup. Tseng held the trigger, watching him with menacing eyes.<br/>
<br/>
PWOCK! Thud.<br/>
Under his hand, he felt Aerith flinch.<br/>
<br/>
The body fell into the sand, its head hitting the chain of the swing on the way down.<br/>
<br/>
He led her to the entrance of the playground before lifting his hand. But as soon as he did, all his efforts were for nothing for she turned around to mourn for the person who had tried to kill her.<br/>
Without waiting for her to stop, he pulled her wrist to lead her back home. She kept on weeping though and he handed her a handkerchief out of his pocket. Then, he made a call for the body to be disposed of and the identity of the man along with it.<br/>
<br/>
<b>+/+/+/+/+/+/+/</b><br/>
<br/>
A few days passed under the cloudless skies and summer sun, but Aerith refused to leave her home after the incident.<br/>
<br/>
Orphans from the neighborhood gathered under her window, shouting for her to play with them. “Aerith! C’mon! Let’s go exploring today!”<br/>
At the window with a kind smile, she shook her head. “Sorry, but I haven’t been feeling well.”<br/>
“Okay, we’ll try again tomorrow! Hope you feel better soon!”<br/>
<br/>
Downstairs, her mother washed the dishes and watched as the children ran to their next destination. She sighed, wondering what had happened. Not eating much of her meals and unwilling to leave her room, she became more suspicious when that young man was camping out nearby. In their garden, Tseng would stand like a soldier, surveying the area and only leaving if he needed to. But he came every day to check on her.<br/>
<br/>
The girl sat up on her bed, hugging her knees and her back pressed against the bedpost. She couldn’t tell her mother what had happened or rather, was unable to express her feelings into comprehensible words. Even though she didn’t mean to, she knew her mother was concerned, but she just couldn’t bring herself to say anything.<br/>
<br/>
Once in a while, she’d slip a glimpse at her window to find Tseng still there. Sometimes, he was talking on his phone, but all the while, he waited for her to come back out. She was used to him watching, but this was the first in a long time that he’d stayed there for many hours at a time.<br/>
<br/>
Finally, she stood up and looked out the window. The sun was lazily lowering towards its slumber and the haze of tangerine and marigold over the garden radiated in a way that made her upset that she’d almost missed it again in her misery. She took a deep breath to watch the sky, the one that scared her once in a while.<br/>
<br/>
She put out her hand, waving silently at him and then pretended she was capturing something in her hand, smiling with eyelids half-closed. This was their secret signal, one of many small games they played with one another.<br/>
<br/>
On her way down, she told her mother she was going to talk to Tseng.<br/>
<br/>
In a white blouse and a powder-blue dress with lace on the straps and on the hem, she wondered how many times he’d waited for her in this year and a half alone. She’d hide in the church to take care of the flowers or slip to the station where he had to find her.<br/>
Inside, she was always searching and he always found her.<br/>
<br/>
As Aerith walked towards him on the lane, he noticed that her hair now fell just a little past her waist. He couldn’t help but hold his breath though. The sun surrounded her so naturally and translucent, as if she’d disappear into its light at anytime.<br/>
<br/>
Her resolve to tell him not to brood instantly disappeared. Her legs gave way, squatting on the grass right in front of him. Scared, she looked around, but why was she actually showing him her fear? Why did she trust him despite everything?<br/>
<br/>
Knowing she was the energetic type, it went against her whole character to even appear a bit paranoid considering her track record.<br/>
“Aren’t you going to play with your friends today?”<br/>
“I’m…I’m afraid.”<br/>
He paused. She was definitely rattled by the researcher. Without her knowledge, he’d prepared everything he could in the past few days to prevent what had happened. It would <em>never </em>occur again.<br/>
“Why? I tell you not to wander too far but you never listen to what I or your mother tell you.” Tseng eyed her blankly. He knew deep down this wasn’t going to be the first or last time.<br/>
“People might jump out and shoot us. And it isn’t the children they want. They want me.” Her voice cracked as she gulped. “I don’t want anyone getting hurt again because of me.”<br/>
<br/>
It was as if she was saying, “I don’t bring people to the Promised Land. I bring them death.”<br/>
<br/>
Hitting him hard, she’d pummeled him invisibly with metal hands. This girl who had watched as her mother left day after day to go into Hojo’s experimental chambers finally caught up to her fear. Getting away from the company meant that they would take her away eventually and it was only a matter of time. That was the very reason he was there, wasn’t it?<br/>
But the researcher had revised the rules. The clock was being changed to go at a faster pace with a lot more players coming their way.<br/>
<br/>
He looked up to the steel sky and then knelt on one knee to the ground, seeing her at eye-level. “You are the future. Until you come willingly, no one else shall claim you.”<br/>
<br/>
“Because I’m a Cetra…” She pushed her forehead to her knees, hugging them even closer.<br/>
“Yes,” was all Tseng could reply. His jaw stiffened as he stared at her face and the cord necklace that Ifalna had left behind.<br/>
<br/>
He couldn’t comfort her in any other way. After all, to her, he was part of the evil organization that had killed her mother.<br/>
<em><br/>
I have to play my role. It’s our game.</em><br/>
<br/>
But as always, she never did what you told her. Never followed the protocols that everyone thought was common sense.<br/>
<br/>
Looking up into his face, she had tears in her eyes. “I wonder if that man’s stopped hurting.”<br/>
“…”<br/>
<br/>
<em>Why the hell do you care for a disgusting being like that? He tried to-</em><br/>
<br/>
Aerith took Tseng’s face into her hands, pressing her palms against his cheeks. Staring into his eyes, she said softly, “You’d die for what you believe in too.”<br/>
Without a word and still watching her carefully, he took out two metal bracers from his jacket, placing them securely onto her wrists.<br/>
<br/>
Taking her hands away, she held up the bracers up with the glare of the metal flashing. Grinning at him, she got up, turned around and left. The light marks of her shoes patted the ground with the wind wiping them away.<br/>
He stood up slowly and saw her expression change, trying to smile to herself and be brave so that the others wouldn’t worry about her.<br/>
<br/>
<em>There are times that she acts her age and there are others where she doesn’t speak like a child at all.</em><br/>
<br/>
He held up his phone to call to be picked up.<br/>
<br/>
<em>For what I believe in…</em><br/>
<br/>
While walking to the meeting point, he passed by Aerith playing tag with the neighborhood children. She glimpsed at him, their eyes meeting briefly, but acted as if they didn’t know one another.<br/>
<br/>
<b>+/+/+/+/+/+/+/</b><br/>
<br/>
Years later…<br/>
<br/>
“Stay here with my mother for now,” Aerith says to Marlene, hugging her tightly.<br/>
<br/>
<b>I’m sure Cloud and the others will find out. Then they will find you, Marlene.</b><br/>
<br/>
“But you’ll come back, won’t you?” Marlene asks while holding her forearms, not wanting to let go.<br/>
“I-“<br/>
“It’s time, Aerith,” Tseng interjects.<br/>
<br/>
Sitting quietly with the helicopter lifting off the ground, her eyelids lower in contemplation, trying to retrieve all the parts of the neighborhood and keep them inside her heart.<br/>
<br/>
Her garden with their patches of rainbow flowers, each tended by her mother and her. They were growing up together. The water fountain where she’d taken baths during the summer and she splashed Tseng one time to get him to change facial expressions. He didn’t. The church where she’d waited for Zack and he’d sneaked up on her to hug her from behind. The dome with the slide where she could finally talk about him with Cloud. The sweet expression Cloud had when he hesitated to leave her. The swings where her mother and her laughed because she’d never been on one before…Even that memory couldn’t override that precious one.<br/>
<br/>
Somewhere inside there’s a nagging feeling that claws at her. She knows it will be a long time until she comes back. If at all.<br/>
<br/>
<b>Funny that from up here, it’s all so idyllic. But I prefer being down there...</b><br/>
<br/>
Tseng grips onto the handles, saying nothing and concentrating on getting back to headquarters as quickly as possible.<br/>
<br/>
<em>Her compassion is still a force to be reckoned with.</em><br/>
<br/>
He can no longer give excuses. If he let her go, would it ease his guilt? Would he be forgiven by that person who told him to take care of her? Of course not, but-<br/>
<br/>
“So will I be staying in my old room?” She’s still staring out the window.<br/>
He nods and answers in a perfunctory tone, “I’ve kept it pristine.”<br/>
A small laugh escapes her lips. “You never change.”<br/>
<br/>
<em>What do you mean by that?</em><br/>
<br/>
His lips remain a thin line, betraying none of his thoughts.<br/>
<br/>
But when he has to hand her over to Hojo, she slips something into his hand. Tseng can’t help but recall that time and this moment as they merge in front of him.<br/>
<br/>
<em>Did I really keep you alive for this?</em><br/>
<br/>
She glances back at him as she’s being led away, lightly holding up her bracers for him to see.<br/>
<br/>
<em>When they were about to get out of the helicopter, she reached out her hand to touch his face, patting his cheekbones with her fingertips. He sat there in his chair very still.<br/>
“I guess our game stops here, Tseng. But I was right like the first time we met. You were protecting me. Thank you.”<br/>
<br/>
If he could have, he would have held her chin to watch her a second longer.</em><br/>
<br/>
At that moment, his ringtone goes off and he picks up his phone. “Reno...”<br/>
<br/>
In that connected hallway, she walks out one end as he goes out the other, clutching onto the handkerchief he’d lent her almost a decade ago.<br/>
<br/>
Ending the call, he’s going down the elevator with his hands folded. He looks out the glass elevator, refusing to see his own reflection.<br/>
<br/>
<em>You were wrong. I could not die for it, even if I believed in it with all my soul.</em><br/>
<br/>
Slowly, his heart suffocates itself the further he walks away from her and inside the company maze.<br/>
<br/>
<b>Owari. / The End.</b></p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I wanted to capture a quick moment between Tseng and Aerith.<br/>But I’ve had this kind of conversation before. Even though you’re an adult, you realize how helpless you can become from a child’s truth. These days, for some reason, this memory kept on coming to my mind.</p><p>Love,<br/>Yui</p></blockquote></div></div>
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